This was one of the first Piper Cubs off the assembly line, after the change from Taylor.
In the late 1920s, Taylor brothers designed 2-seat light plane, Chummy. Bradford PA Board of Commerce provided $50,000 to capitalize new company as means of promoting local industries; Bill Piper was one shareholder. Piper believed that, at $3,985, Chummy would be too expensive and offered to sponsor development of a small plane to sell at half price. E-2, with underpowered 20 hp "Tiger Kitten" engine resulted. Without suitable power plant, firm went bankrupt, but Piper bought assets of firm 1931 and kept C. G. Taylor as chief engineer. Later that year, E-2 was fitted with new Continental A-40 engine of 37 hp; 22 E-2s sold that year with sales growing tenfold by 1935. 1937, Bradford plant burned down, and Piper moved plant and over 200 employees to abandoned silk mill in Lock Haven. Production of J-2s ended when J-3s introduced.